Equal Payments
by ice bitten
Summary: Which costs more? A tennis date with Ryoma or a lunch from Sakuno? Well, auctions weren't meant to be fun... RYOSAKU


**Equal Payments**

**Which costs more- a tennis date with Ryoma or a lunch from Sakuno? Well, Ryoma wasn't about to get the latter found out. RYOSAKU**

**The Lunch ONE SHOT.**

"_Tell myself I'll stop everyday knowing that I won't."_

_-Because of you (Neo)_

"_**Hey!!! Echizen!!!"**_

Looking up from his dried squids, Echizen Ryoma gave a half hearted salute to Momoshiro.

"Yo senpai," Ryoma greeted.

Momoshiro grinned, looking over Ryoma's outfit. The tennis prodigy was dressed in matching Seigaku Tennis uniform as matching with the rest of the Regulars. What was it about this particular day that made the uncanny blue and white uniform particularly special?

"It's School Festival day Echizen!!!" Momoshiro yelled, throwing his hands up, "Smile and salute!!! The Tennis Club still needs more fund raising and it's almost _**your**_ turn!!!"

Ryoma sighed, honestly getting sick of the happy, fun atmosphere. This year, for their club the Tennnis Team decided to host a "Versus Date" with the regulars to raise money. Basically you paid to play a tennis game with one of the regulars (Though really it was barely hitting the ball back and forth). So far Fuji had the most requests, but it was almost time for Ryoma's name to be put on the "Versus Date Menu".

Oh well, Ryoma decided as Momoshiro slung his arm around his shoulders, it was better than what his class was doing.

Something about… cooking?

MEANWHILE.

"_**Hey!!! Sakuno!!!"**_

Looking up from molding rice balls, Ryuuzaki Sakuno nervously greeted Tomoka.

"Hello Tomoka chan."

Tomoka hopped in front of their stand. She was wearing a blue and black open yukata with the room's number sewed on the back. A thick, white rope was tied around her forhead, which she was currently adjusting as she looked over Sakuno's riceballs.

"Hmm, perfect!" Tomoka said in awe, "Our class will surely win this year with your cooking Sakuno!!!"

"That's great," Sakuno smiled. Cooking _**was**_ the only thing Sakuno was good at after all. Finishing another riceball, Sakuno set the treat in one of the plastic lunch boxes she set open on the table.

"Yeah, we're doing perfect. Now we have Uremeshi working on the fruit punch and Kuwabara should be coming back with extra ingridients," Tomoka informed Sakuno.

Sakuno nodded, "That's good. I'll just slice the cakes after I'm done here."

"Good, call me if you need any help, okay? The rest of the class should be attracting everyone by now," Tomoka said and she stumbled off as a few of the classmates ran by with a boombox, "See you later, Sakuno!!!"

Sakuno smiled and waved off Tomoka. The girl proceeded to catch up with the boombox, singing random lyrics as to attract customers back to their stand. This year their class decided to use Sakuno's cooking skills to their advantage, cooking up lunch boxes half the school considered to be "Amazingly Good". Almost everyone saw Sakuno's lunch boxes and almost everyone looked at them with envy seeing the only people who got to eat the treat were either Ryoma or Sakuno's grandmother. However, everyone knew that the one made for Ryoma was _**especially **_delectable.

Which is why, Tomoka decided, that there would be an auction would be held near the end of the festival for what their class labeled at "THE ECHIZEN LUNCH BOX" for their trump card. This box was filled with everything from rice to sausages shaped like octopuses, from fried fish to rice with _furikake_ on it, and not to mention the creamy puffs served with it.

"How embarrassing," Sakuno murmured into her hands.

"Nonsense, that apron looks cute on you Sakuno san."

"Eh?" Sakuno peeked from her fingers.

"How much for one?" Smiling, Fuji asked as he motioned to one of the riceballs. He wasn't the least sweaty despite rallying with majority of the Seigaku's female population.

"Oh, rice balls are free," Sakuno explained, "The lunchboxes are the ones that are for sale though."

"I see," Fuji said and he picked up a cat shaped riceball, "Sakuno san is an excellent cook, isn't she? You must've worked so hard on all of this food."

"I-It's nothing, really," Sakuno blushed, "It's just rice and _umeboshi_ and… Fuji senpai must be tired after all those tennis matches."

"I wouldn't call them matches," Fuji laughed, "But they are fun."

Sakuno smiled and she picked up a flyer, "You know Fuji san, if you come by later you can bid on one of our special lunch boxes."

"Oh?"

"Mmhmm." Sakuno handed Fuji the flyer.

Scanning it, Fuji's smile slowly captivated a mischievous grin.

"Sakuno san… Echizen wouldn't know of this, would he?"

MEANWHILE.

"I WANT TWENTY DOLLARS ON RYOMA SAMA!!!"

"WELL I WANT TWENTY-FIVE!!!"

"THIRTY!!!"

"THIRTY-FIVE!!!"

Rigidly, Ryoma stood on the tennis courts. His face was as passive as ever, but Momoshiro nervously watched as the grip on his tennis racket slowly got tighter with every higher bid.

"FOURTY!!!"

"Nya, Ochibi is sure popular, isn't he?" Eiji prodded.

"Eiji…" Oishi warned, also aware of the prince's growing fury.

"Momo senpai," Ryoma strained to control his tone, "When did this become an auction?"

It was true, every one else just had to play a certain number of girls who filled out the play sheet first and paid where as Ryoma was being open auctioned off. Standing in the middle of the tennis courts as the bleachers were filled with screaming girls all of whom brought a tennis racket _**just**_ for this game. Imagine Ryoma's tension was he handled his racket on the empty tennis court with no one to play with but a fangirl.

Ryoma paused, well he could handle only one fangirl, and at this thought a set of familiar braids crossed his mind.

"_**ONE HUNDRED!!!"**_

The crowd was hushed then and made way for…

"…Tomoka chan?" Momoshiro acknowledged.

"Sold," Inui said immediately. He slammed his mallet down and proceeded to take money from the screaming fangirl who immediately ran through the bleachers and onto the tennis courts.

Slapping the money in Inui's open palm, Tomoka turned to Ryoma, a starry eyed expression on her face as she clutched a racket to her.

"Oh Ryoma sama, I've waited for this for so long!" Tomoka giggled, "Shall we begin?"

Ryoma merely shrugged and was about to pull out a tennis ball when…

"Hisss… my racket?"

Tomoka froze, frigidly turning around to Kaidoh. With his hair stringing out due to the dangerous aura, he hovered over her with dangerous fire in his eyes.

"You stole this idiot's racket?" Momoshiro said in awe, "Good going."

"You're not using it now!!!" Tomoka cried, tugging on the racket before Kaidoh could get to it. Ducking behind Momoshiro, Tomoka stuck her tongue out.

"Hiss, little brat!!!" Kaidoh roared and he pounced, nearly knocking over Momoshiro.

"Watch it, snake!!! You're stomping around like a huge gorilla!!!" Momoshiro yelled.

"Shut up, idiot!!!"

"NO you!!!"

"Oh geez," Ryoma muttered. He pulled down on his cap.

"What's going on here?" Fuji said as he walked onto the court. He took a glance at Tomoka, who was hiding behind Oishi now, "Tomoka san, shouldn't you be getting back to your stand?"

"Hm? What do you mean?" Tomoka asked.

"Isn't your auction starting soon?" Fuji innocently asked, taking a small glance at Ryoma, "You remember the one for Sakuno's hand made lunch?"

Suddenly Tomoka let out a loud cry, "_**THAT'S RIGHT!!!**_ We're holding an auction for a Ryoma sama leveled lunch from Sakuno chan!!!"

"Woah," Momoshiro said, "Back up. An Echizen leveled lunch? That has-"

"-everything from egg rolls to sushi, nya!!!" Eiji finished, "That's something _**I'm **_going to bet on!!!"

"Hmm, studying a lunch like that will be good for data," Inui muttered ("What data?!" Ryoma muttered in the background.).

"Hisss…"

"That's sounds pretty good," Momoshiro agreed, "I'm going to bet on that right now!!!"

"Nya!" Eiji hopped, he flipped on Momoshiro's head, "Not before I get there!!!"

"_**Hey!!!"**_

But before Momoshiro could fully go into a sprint, Kaidoh grabbed Momoshiro's collar and pushed him back as he accelerated forward.

"You snake how dare you-"

"Ooh, I want to see if Sakuno san improved her cooking."

"Eh?! You too, Kawamura?!"

"Good data…"

"_**I'M GOING TO GET THERE FIRST!!!"**_

"What about you Oishi?" Fuji asked innocently after the chaos had exited.

"Sure I would love to try some of the food Ryuuzaki san made," Oishi agreed. Fuji smiled and the two trotted out of the courts, leaving behind a very confused tennis player.

Ryoma stood in the now deserted tennis courts, with his tennis racket in one hand and a ball in the other with a dark aura hovering over him, he said in disbelief,

"Ryuuzaki… is selling my lunch?"

…_**HIS LUNCH?!**_

MEANWHILE

"_A lunch made for Ryoma is going on auction?" _

"_Seriously?"_

"_Dude, I heard that has the most awesome food!!!"_

"_Let's go bet on that!!! I'll split with you!!!"_

"_To the Echizen level lunch box auction!!!"_

"I WANT TWENTY DOLLARS ON THE ECHIZEN LUNCH BOX!!!"

"WELL I WANT TWENTY-FIVE!!!"

"THIRTY!!!"

"THIRTY-FIVE!!!"

Shaking, Sakuno stood with the three level lunch box trembling in her hands. Surely she did not expect all of Seigaku to be crowding in front of her small stand. And with all the lunch boxes and rice balls gone, the fact the only edible thing was in Sakuno's hand only made the crowd seem worst.

"FORTY!!!"

Tomoka dove in front of Sakuno, holding out her hands as if protecting the small girl from the dangerous crowd.

"Okay!!!" Tomoka demanded, _**"EVERYONE GET ORGANIZED NOW!!!"**_

Immediately the crowd quieted down.

"Now…_**DO I HEAR A FIFTY-FIVE?!"**_ Tomoka screeched.

"_**FIFTY-FIVE!!!"**_

"Hiss… Sixty."

"EFF YOU, SNAKE!!! SEVENTY!!!"

"Nyyaaaaaa… Oishi, lend me money…"

"I'm broke too…"

"SEVENTY FIVE NYA!!!"

"_**EIJI, I JUST SAD I WAS BROKE!!!"**_

The crowd erupted into chaos and soon the number was so high Sakuno was getting overwhelmed. Leaning on the table, she felt like fainting any minute now. Why was her school so crazy? For a lunch box- for Ryoma's kun's lunch box!?

Soon a cold voice broke the crowd,

"One hundred- Fifty."

"…_**TEZUKA BUCHOU?!?!"**_

Oh, yes, Sakuno could just faint there and then.

"Sold!!!" Tomoka yelled and she slammed a giant mallet on the table. In the background, meanwhile, Inui was scribbling in his data muttering about data.

Tezuka shrugged and walked towards the stands.

"Ooh, nice turn of events," Fuji said as he clapped along side with the crowd.

"Well it's a good thing we didn't win, right Oishi?" Eiji grinned as Oishi just dryly stared ahead.

"Here you go, Tezuka senpai," Sakuno bowed and held out the lunch box.

Suddenly as Tezuka reached for the box, a tennis ball zoomed in and smacked his hands away. The crowd gasped and everyone looked behind as Ryoma arrogantly dribbled another tennis ball, crouched over and ready for a second serve.

"Another nice turn of events," Fuji remarked.

"I already paid Echizen," Tezuka simply stated.

Ryoma looked a little bit angry and snapped, "Then get your money back!"

The crowd parted for Ryoma as he stepped through the crowd, making his way towards the stand, "And as for that match," Ryoma looked at Tomoka and then pointed at Sakuno, "I realized I'm already giving lessons to this one."

"Eh?" Sakuno and Tomoka said together.

Ryoma rolled his eyes and tugged at Sakuno, pulling her and the lunch box towards him. He then grabbed at her wrist and proceeded to walk through the crowd and away.

"What… just happened?" Tomoka asked, quirking her eye brows.

"Let's just say that they owe each other," Fuji said, amused, "For all those free lunches and matches, right?"

"Fuji… you had this all figured out, didn't you?"Momoshiro dead panned.

"What figured out?" Fuji asked, his face depicting an angels'.

"Geez…"

"Tomoka," Tezuka said, "My money back, please."

Silence.

"…Tomoka?"

"Whoa, where did she go, nya?"

"Girl moves fast."

"Hiss.."

_**END.**_

_August 24, 2007 (6:18AM)_

I kind of realized how pointless this story was halfway through and just finished it to finish it. Lmao. UGH, I should get working on my other fanfictions…


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